Bears and Eagles coaches have mutual admiration,
Not long after he was hired, Matt Nagy watched the Super Bowl with his wife at a bar near the Chicago Bears’ practice facility. His good friend Doug Pederson was coaching the Philadelphia Eagles to their first Super Bowl championship.
The place was just about empty. He even had to ask for the game to be turned on.
“It was awesome,” he recalled.
Nagy hopes things don’t go so well for his pal when the NFC North champion Bears host the Eagles on Sunday in a wild-card game packed with story lines.
Chicago (12-4) is in the playoffs for the first time since the 2010 team won the division, making a huge jump in Nagy’s first season after four straight lastplace finishes. The Bears are on a 9-1 tear; the Eagles (9-7) have won five of six.
Chicago quarterback Mitchell Trubisky will make his first playoff appearance.
Eagles quarterback Nick Foles — last year’s Super Bowl MVP — will try to deliver another standout performance while filling in for Carson Wentz. He’s 6-0 in those situations the past two seasons.
Foles was particularly good the past three games with Wentz sidelined by a back injury. He tied Philip Rivers’ NFL record in last week’s win over Washington by completing 25 consecutive passes. He will start this one after leaving with a chest injury against the Redskins.
Alshon Jeffery will play in Chicago for the first time since the star receiver left the Bears after five seasons to sign with Philadelphia in 2017. Chicago’s Trey Burton will try to beat the Eagles this time after throwing a touchdown to Foles on a trick play — “Philly Special” — in the Super Bowl victory over New England.
There will be Long brothers — Chicago guard Kyle and Philadelphia defensive end Chris — on opposing teams.
And there will be two coaches on opposite sidelines with a strong bond formed while working under Andy Reid in Philadelphia and Kansas City.
“I told him at the owners meeting this past offseason, he got that Super Bowl, right. I’m trying to follow his lead here,” Nagy said. “He probably doesn’t want to hear that right now, but I want to stick on that path. Ton of respect for him.”
The feeling is mutual. “Right away, you [could] tell that he was going to work himself up the ranks,” Pederson said.
ELSEWHERE
Jets: New York’s A search for a new coach is kicking into high gear.
The team announced Saturday it completed its interview with former Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy, the third known coach to meet with New York since Todd Bowles was fired last Sunday night.
The Jets met with Kansas City Chiefs offensive coor- dinator Eric Bieniemy on Wednesday, and former Dolphins coach Adam Gase on Friday. And they’re far from done with sitting down with candidates.
New York is also expected to interview Cowboys defensive backs coach/ passing game coordinator Kris Richard in Dallas on Sunday and Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Todd Monken early next week.
Browns: Dan Camp
A bell’s strong stint as an interim coach has Cleveland considering him as a permanent one.
Cleveland took its coaching search on the road to interview Campbell, the New Orleans tight ends/ assistant head coach, who went 5-7 after taking over Miami’s job in 2015.
Campbell, 42, met Friday with Browns general manager John Dorsey and other front-office members in Louisiana while the Saints practiced during their bye week in the NFL playoffs.
Campbell checks every box in what the Browns are looking for in a coach. He played in the NFL for 10 seasons — three in Dallas under Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells — and has worked on Sean Payton’s staff for three seasons in New Orleans.
But it was Campbell’s 12-game run as the Dolphins’ interim coach in 2015 that gained him respect and has teams other than the Browns interested in him.
Campbell took over after Joe Philbin was fired after a 1-3 start and kept the Dolphins competitive.